I really wish that Letterman ended being the odd man out of late night. The guy looks like he's been running on fumes since 1995. He's annoying, his comedy is lazy and out of touch and he doesn't look like he bothers to prep for his interviews. That's in addition to being a bigger dirtbag than we thought. I was pretty shocked that he ended up beating Conan in the ratings as easily as he has.

You're insulting Letterman when Jay Leno still has a show? Letterman isn't the greatest by any stretch, but Jay Leno is so awful it's offensive.

I guess I haven't really seen enough of Jay's new show to have seen how bad it's gotten. Jay's always struck me as somewhat likable if not a whole lot funnier than Letterman. I just find Dave unwatchable these days -- maybe's it's his particular brand of narcissism. And I used to be a pretty big fan years ago, so perhaps part of it is that my taste has changed . . .

I was just thinking too . . . I actually went to the Tonight Show in 2007 and was in the very front row -- right in front of Jay. He was literally like 6 feet away during the monologue. I remember thinking at one point, right after we shook his hand: "Crap, now I HAVE to laugh."

About 15 minutes before the show started taping, Jay came out an talked to the audience a bit about how the show works, etc. At one point he said, "And, by the way, I have to ask you . . . please laugh at the monologue, no matter how stupid it is!"

As bittersweet as the sendoff was this evening, it's hard to grieve when Will Ferrell, Beck, Conan and the Tonight Show Band are all on the same stage performing Freebird (not even accounting for the superb and highly apropos Neil Young performance that preceded it). And then, just to break up the oh-so-monotonous level of 100% awesome they had successfully sustained, Ferrell took it upon himself whip out the cowbell, taking the level to ∞% awesome. I was only saddened upon realization that Jimmy Fallon and his ilk are all that remain. Fuck.

Truly, Conan has made an impact on me as both a writer and fanatic of comedy; his SNL sketches being of the highest pedigree, his contributions to the Simpsons being among my all-time favorite half hour segments of television, period, and Late Night being arguably the most memorable, refreshing talk show of my youth. I will miss him terribly, and I have so much respect for his work, as well as his perspective; he went out a class act this evening.

I have so, so many good things to say right now, but not nearly as many as those I wish for Conan in the coming years. Best of luck; it's been fun.

I can't say much, but I promise Mr. O'Brien I won't be cynical about this at the very least. He's been on these late night television shows since I was 6 years old, I've been watching since I was about 9. I don't know what I really feel, probably won't until a few weeks pass and I want to watch Coco and realize I can't. On the other hand, there are probably great great things in his future, I can't wait to see what those are.

Loved Neil Young. Now he's the calibre of musician to have on your last show! Earlier in this thread when names were being tossed around as last guests on his show, I posted that I hoped they could come up with better guests, especially a better musical guest. I was going to post the names of a few musicians/bands I thought would be better, but didn't bother because it was late and only one name popped into my mind that night -- Neil Young.